10.17.2012

Choosing The Right Crops For Your Tiller Farm

If you're like me you have more than a few level 85 alts that may not be level 90 but they are farming their little 4-plot Tiller farm at Halfhill in Valley of the Four Winds. (Talk to Farmer Yoon to get your quests to get your farm opened up.)

How do you decide what crops to grow each day? Head past the jump for my quick technique for maximizing the profit you can gain from these farms.Daily Research

I want to state ahead of time that for players at level 90 I'd guess the most valuable plants may be the ones that grow Mote of Harmony. This advice is for alts that aren't level 90 yet and thus don't have access to those seeds.

So how do you know which of the available seeds you should be planting on your characters? We are going to be using The Undermine Journal's cooking page to make an educated guess at what crops might be best to grow on a day-to-day basis.

Mouse-over the "GATHERED" menu item. (The Undermine Journal recently revamped their menus. This category used to be called "CONSUMABLES".)

Select the "Cooking" sub-menu item. (I recommend you bookmark this page in your web browser for easy access in the future.)

Scroll down to the "From the Farm" section.

This section shows all of the various types of food that we can grow on our Tiller farms sorted by the highest price to the lowest price.

This is the section that I use on a daily basis to decide which crops to grow.

Above you can see the various crops along with two other important pieces of information: current auction house prices and total number available on the auction house

As you can see from the image above my server/faction seems to have an abundance of vegetables for sale. From the information above I can see that I may get the best return by planting Jade Squash as it is not only the highest priced item but also its number of available auctions is a bit lower.

I also like to diversify my crops a bit as I am planting. I generally try to plant a mix of the top three most valuable crops. This helps to hedge against market shifts and also helpe it so I don't flood one market and thus possibly lower the price.

Tips & Tricks

Here are a few tips to help your farmer alts.

Set your Hearthstone to The Lazy Turnip for easy access to your farm.

When you log in check around The Lazy Turnip for the Blingtron 4000 (placed by players) and quickly log onto all your toons to get a presents from it.

Buy your seeds after you harvest your crops, not before. You have a chance to get seeds back with you harvest.

Conclusion

So, how has my farming been going so far using this technique? I am planting vegetables on about 6 characters and that equals around 120 vegetables a day. I've been selling my vegetables for right around 10-15g each which comes out to roughly 1200 gold per day.

That isn't a bad return on a few minutes of my play time. Plus, using The Undermine Journal Cooking page has also helped me watch the trends in vegetable prices over time.

Know that you know what crops might sell for good prices go out there and get your hands dirty!

24 plots per day across 6 different toons, with process of harvesting - then tilling - then planting - then dealing with the random proc per crop would actually be more effort than you give it credit for.

1200g returns are also idealised and if you're going for a 'broad spread' then I'd assume that your haul will be less on average, randomised and very server dependent.

It's decent return for no investment other than time and effort, but I think we're over estimating the reward and under estimating the time investment a little here & should keep it mind so as not to set an unrealistic expectation.

My 90 is exalted and unlocked all 16 plots, even with the large scale watering/pest control devices on the farm, it definitely takes more than a few minutes every day to harvest and replant my crops and that's just on one toon, yet alone 6!

As an Alchemist/Engineer, the only use I have for Spirit of Harmonies are for Golden Lotus which go for 150-200g ea. That would make each plot of land worth ~60g. With crops going for anywhere between 6g-25g, I usually get more gold planting crops than motes.

What works for me is:Ask the fish what is the next day's crop.Wait for a few minutes before midnight and check the AH.If today's crop is more valuable than tomorrow's crop, plant today's crop and harvest just past midnight to still get the fish bonus.If tomorrow's crop is more valuable, plant tomorrow's crop and wait for the next day to harvest and get the bonus.

Agree with Morgram. I enjoy the farming, but even with your great tips for making it profitable, it will likely become a way to get motes for my main and my alts plants will wither away.

Can add a way home to your list...the Rings from Dalaran. Though I read something might be happening with the city and that may cause the rings to become obsolete (I'm sure there's info with spoilers out there, but I haven't had time to look just yet.)